Cracks on condado apartment

On many properties you get cracking where the blocks join together because as pointed out there are no expansion joints, where the extremes of heat and cold the walls have no way to move so crack horizontally but ths should only effect the render, outside coating. If you push a scrw driver into the gap it will tell you how deep the cracking is.

If ot is just expansion the solution is correct, open up the area cutting a new vertical cut, fill with a good quality expanding filler and render the damaged ara but not over the top of the render

There is another common problem which is more serious which is when the builder hasn't correctly tied the blocks together anbd you get a seperation as the blocks move, much deeper cracking, which may not be seen inside the blocks. This is resolved by hacking off the render and introducing sttel ties to join the blocks together and then the render done

II would suggest that these type of defects would be covered by the 10 year buiding guarantee that you should get with the new property

If it was me looking to buy a CAM Bank repossession I would walk away and find a more suitable one for the following reasons;

If deep, a 2cm gap in a wall appears quite excessive for expansion. If the wall ties are missing or not spaced at the correct intervals then the problem could extend quite far into the party wall (wall adjoining each property). Worse case this would mean the wall would have to be rebuilt and tied correctly. This is a common problem on older UK houses where wall ties have failed over the years due to corrosion.

If the cracks go from the ground level to the top then this might be due to some ground movement. Once the apartment is built and the ground settles you would expect to see some hair line cracks appearing but again if this is the case then 2cm is a bit excessive.

Cam bank apartments are bought as seen but do come with a 10 year guarantee so if it is just cosmetic rather than structural problems you will have to sort it out your self.

We bought off CAM Bank and only had one problem, air con outlet pipe running up then down in a bedroom wall, so pick the right one and you have yourself a great bargain. If you really want this apartment for its location etc... rather than another CAM one then I would suggest that if you have doubts then get a 'qualified' building surveyor to take a look.

Thanks

Andrew

You cannot legally sell a property in Spain without providing trhe 10 year guarntee as it is part of the bond on the initial build and transfers with new owners

I presume, like the NHBC guarantee, the 10 year guarantee on the Condado apartments only covers the structural integrity and weatherproofing of the building. Does anybody know how long (approx) it would take for the cracks to be rectified if a claim is made against the guarantee?

Thanks

Andrew

With my company InspectaHomespain I have been dealing with completions, snagging and construction issues for more than 8 years and we have checked more than 3000 properties

A poster here is saying that on these discounted properties that there is no 10 year biond which is ilegal. especially if these properties are being sold by the bank as repocessions from the developer as the developer will have had to provide this insurance backed bond

If you wish to know more about the regukations visit my site www.thesnaggingforum.com but if there no bond do not touch these properties and get an expert opinion

Which poster has said there is no 10 year guarantee? If you mean me then please recheck what I have written;

Cam bank apartments are bought as seen but do come with a 10 year guarantee so if it is just cosmetic rather than structural problems you will have to sort it out your self.

I said they do come with a 10 year guarantee but are bought as seen, i.e you can't go back to CAM like you can a developer and ask them to sort out a sticking bathroom door after you have purchased and I can't see them being much help with the cracks either once you have bought, you will be on your own.

Thanks

Andrew

Apologies I did misread ythe post but people do need to be careful as the other guarntee that the developer has to provude is a 3 year term for anything that makes the property non-habitable

We have had cases where the insurer will not act or payout on the 10 year term because the 3 years are initially the responsibility of the builder

No worries!

I see where you are coming from with the 3 years thing. This could end up being a very difficult purchase for someone if these cracks are serious. I can not see Polaris World wanting to fix a problem when the apartment has been repossessed from them. From what I can remember from our purchase, the paper work you sign in Spanish when buying from CAM Bank states that you are buying something that is bought as seen i.e we do not want to know if it goes wrong!!!

Thanks

Andrew

Just as quick update the poster here asked me to go an look at the cracking problem so today I did and it was much more serious than I expected

The property isn't falling down but this particular design is unusal and there are not many of them and it is where they have tried to join 2 properties together and if you look thay can be identified by 2 chimney stacks

Hi, this is for Roy to answer as I am a bit confused. The gap you are talking about is at the end of one block of apartments and the beginning of another block of apartments. So why would you tye these together with steel straps as they are no different from the opposite ends of the block. surely the gap is filled with a mastic strip to make it look  better and to keep out debries and water. This will over time need replacing as the climate will damage it. The gap you see is not the walls moving away from each other as they have the rest of the block supporting it but simply the mastic shrinking.

If you could clarify Roy that would be good.

Pad

The problem is that there are 2 blocks that join together and normally the walls of these 2 properties will be immediately next to each other, perhaps with a VERY SMALL gap in-between 

In the case of these properties, and if of course the damage was limited to the actual mastic, the cracks is severe and both sides of the mastic strip that has been put in place, in fact more than 10cm away from the mastic strip as the blocks separate and move and the gap widens between the blocks 

I put a probe into the cracks both in the wall, the areas of the mastic and it went into a void behind the joints

If this was just a problem with the strip you would not get the amount of cracking which runs form floor to roof, up the vent stacks and over the roof terraces

What is required is a way to first stop the blocks moving, the steel ties holding the brickwork, then replace the mastic and repair the cracking, replace the render and paint

Simply the mastic shrinking would not result in the amount and severity of the cracks that have appeared, happy to provide photographic evidence if required, the mastic after all should provide a flexible joint, not a to glue the walls together

The problem now is the water is penetrating the walls through the large number of cracks and even if you fill these, and render the property it will happen again, plus we saw at least 8 other properties of this style, all with the same problem in varying degrees

I have seen this problem in 3 other developments and on every occasion the walls and joints required the steel ties to prevent further damage and repair the defect 

Roy can you confirm the size of the gap again as 10cm seems very wide and most joints I have seen on the resort are only 2cm max?

Paul